Book Monitor - books from across the world

Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Category: Featured children’s book Page 15 of 29

Stuff You Should Know! by John Farndon and Rob Beattie

By

On July 9, 2018

In 7+ years, 9 to 10 years, All Ages, BookMonitor, Children's books, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Non Fiction, Quarto KNows

Stuff You Should Know cover image and web link

Buy this great book here…

The first things you will notice about ‘The Stuff You Should Know’  are the really good illustrations  and the interesting use of text, there are questions that you never ask but  the answers are fascinating.

What happens when you tweet on Twitter?

What happens when you recycle your drinks can?

What happens when you charge your iPad?

This book is packed with so many answers and  you will become full of knowledge! There is a page, for example, on Sending Mail, with the issues around transport and deliveries to rural areas, using postcodes and barcodes to get the letter to the right place.

Stuff you shuold know! Buy this Book - image and web link

…with free delivery!

The double page open spread on Using a Mobile Phone is amazing!

Fact – by 2015 around 2.7 billion people worldwide owned a smart phone and it is now one of the most important gadgets on the planet.

The book describes the operating system, the battery, USB connector, the Sim card, touchscreen technology, emails, apps, music, location services, games and much more. For instance, when you touch the screen it interrupts a current of electricity informing the phone where your fingers are, it’s called capacitive touchscreen!

John Farndon is an internationally known author, as well as a playwright, composer and songwriter. He has written hundreds of books, which have sold millions of copies around the world in most major languages and include many best-sellers, such as the award-winning Do Not Open.

Rob Beattie is a professional writer and life-long camper and angler. He has written numerous titles on a wide range of outdoor activities, including: The Pocket Survival Guide, The Campsite Companion: All You Need to Know for Life in the Great Outdoors, The Boating Companion: All You Need to Know for Life on the Open Water, and The Fishing Handbook(published in the UK as 101 Golden Rules of Fishing). All have been published internationally and translated into several languages. He lives in the seaside city of Brighton, England.

STEVE FRICKER is a renowned illustrator and painter. Awarded the Rhone-Poulenc prize for his illustrations for What Happens When? His work has appeared in many of the worlds leading newspapers and magazines as well as private and National collections. Steve studied painting at Chelsea School of Art .He worked for 25 years as a political cartoonist and illustrated comment pages by Tony Blair, John Major and Boris Johnson and many others.

This book, published by Marshall Editions, part of Quarto Knows, is a great way to find out information and then maybe find out more on the internet too. It will be great for the summer holidays and I think parents will have as much fun with this as any child.

And now to find out about jet engines!!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Authors and Schools across the world via BGW

By

On June 9, 2018

In 9 to 10 years, Black Dog Books, Books go Walkabout, Carole Wilkinson, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

Jumping betwixt Australia, China, Hong Kong and the UK!

Kellett School year 5’s had just returned from Beijing in May 2018 when they joined Books Go Walkabout ‘skyping’ to Carole Wilkinson, award-winning Australian author, her Dragonkeeper series is set in Ancient China.

The year 5 students at Kowloon Bay campus of Kellett School were intrigued with Carole’s presentation showing drawings and research, especially the drawing of an Emperor taking his dragon for a walk, his body curled around and walking side by side. 

The hour-long session covered a whole host of creative writing thoughts and possibilities,conversations about writing, story ideas, and characters. Dragonkeeper is now being made into a movie, it is now two years from starting and two years until completion. Very exciting and maybe two years is not too long to wait?

There be dragons!

Dragonkeeper is a fantasy story about a slave girls who saves the life of an ageing dragon, and escapes her brutal master.

Pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter, the girls and the dragon, make an epic journey across China in 141BC, carrying a mysterious stone that must be protected. There are seven books in the series plus an introduction book, a great read and some of the students have already read the first five books.

Enjoying the book…

Kellett year 5 students had already completed some brilliant writing projects about characters and the story-line. 

Books Go Walkabout provides more than just an author, we work with the school to ensure that there is great benefit to school and students and that there are curriculum matches to enhance attainment and enjoyment too.

Looking forward to more ‘skyping’ across the world.

Sue Martin

Skype is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation
Books Go Walkabout

Discover a world of authors, illustrators and readers!

Plantopedia, A Celebration of Nature’s Greatest Show-offs by Adrienne Barman

By

On May 10, 2018

In 6+ Years, All Ages, Books go Walkabout, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, WideEyed Editions

Plantopedia

Buy this book…

Welcome to the greatest show on earth, featuring the most tremendous trees and tiniest seeds, flowers masquerading as twinkling stars and very confused fruit and vegetables!

This is an incredible, non-edible, fun-loving and intellectually desirable book about plants! Plants from all over the world, chosen for their unique traits and characteristics, their abilities in disguise, and captivation, who is the cleverest, the plants or the insects?

Discover the ‘evergreens’, the ‘edibles’, the ‘elderly’ plants that have outlived the dinosaurs.

The budding naturalists among the students will be absorbed totally by the quirky text, wealth of fascinating information and stylish illustrations.  Watch out for the section on poisonous plants, which is led by an illustration of a skeleton in clothes; it includes plants such as Feverfew, Henbane and Strychnine tree.

It is a book that I keep picking up and reading from, remembering the bite sized pieces of information.

Adrienne Barman is the author and illustrator and produces very colourful and stylish work. She lives in Geneva having illustrated many books.

WideEyed is part of the QuartoKnows publishing group and has an amazingly interesting list of children’s books.

We thoroughly recommend this book for schools and libraries and especially for the families kitchen table, a book to have and to dip into, it will be a joy to have.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

 

The Ghosts and Jamal

By

On May 4, 2018

In Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, New titles

Buy this book here…

Jamal lives away from a village in West Africa, he is different, people are afraid that his twitching and strange behaviour may be linked to black magic. His Mum has died and his grandfather disappeared with the remains of the palm wine.

The villagers believe Jamal is marked by spirits, which meant that when the village is attacked by terrorists he is left alone and saved. But he is totally alone. Along with his kit bag and copy of The Koran, which was given to him by the Imam who is friendly to him, Jamal sets off away from the village.

Although Jamal finds his grandfather, he sends him away and throws stones at him as he scrambles down the mountain. He is taken in by humanitarian workers who do their best to help and provide him with pills for his epilepsy, but their solution is to send him to an orphanage.

Jamal’s journey goes on, with each place being hard to live in, children knowing Jamal is not quite the same as them. Slowly it appears that Jamal is also autistic. Children and adults in the places where Jamal finds himself, usually end up trying to trick or abuse Jamal, who always has a sense of this but unable to defend himself properly, that is until the end of the story.

This is a great book, quite challenging at times, and brings you directly to life in West Africa and the challenging time for anyone with autism or epilepsy. The concept of bad spirits is pretty frightening and an awareness grows that a sudden epileptic attack could leave Jamal in a very bad place.

But it doesn’t and the surprise at the end of the book is terrific!

The Ghosts and Jamal is written by Bridget Blankley, who spent most of her early life in Nigeria and has an autism spectrum disorder. It is published by HopeRoad Publishing, who work with a focus on West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, supporting neglected voices.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

The 2018 Philippa Pearce Lecture- Peopling The Dark – Frances Hardinge

By

On April 23, 2018

In Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Homerton College, Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture, Young Adults

Frances Hardinge delivered the Philippa Pearce Lecture to a packed auditorium on April 18th at Homerton College, University of Cambridge.

Are books too scary?  Can we iron out the monsters? Should we face the monsters alone?

Some of the questions which Frances eloquently suggested to the audience, why do we think  children should not be given answers, but left with the monster lurking, when we just want them to be safe and not to think about scary things?

Frances’s novels, which include The Lie Tree, The Cuckoo Song and A Skinful of Shadows are full of shadows and half glimpsed faces, things which in the dark are scary. Adults tend to come in and put on the light and explain that there is nothing to be scared of, but when the light goes out, Frances explained that the scary monster is back.  Frances recalled how she had first read The Shadow Cage by Philippa Pearce and it had struck a deep chord.The Lie Tree

Children’s fiction has a wealth of unseen things, some are cowed and shrouded, faceless and use of nonsense words and vague descriptions, for example the Jabberwocky the work of Lewis Carroll. In Victorian children’s books, Frances explained that monsters would be used to impose sanctions, e.g. the monster will get you. Stormtroopers of fear and imagination, the use of cautionary tales.

In today’s world of books for children there is a wealth of material which brings in darkness and scariness, the fear and the imagination of children and young people, for example, Harry Potter and the dementors. We can try to iron out the monsters, we can offer daytime explanations but there remains some uncanny gravitas which no electric light bulb can help!

Frances also pointed out that all children’s authors are adult but maybe it is the inner-self that is still part of the childhood.

A thought-provoking lecture and Frances Hardinge gave an excellent informative journey through the materials on the dark side.

Francis Hardinge at Homerton College, Cambridge to deliver the 2018 Philipp Pearce Lecture

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

Is it a Mermaid? by Candy Gourlay, illustrated by Francesca Chessa

By

On April 5, 2018

In Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Otter-Barry

 

Is it a Mermaid?

Buy this book here…

When Benji and Bel find a strange creature on a tropical beach they know it is a dugong. But the dugong insists she is a beautiful mermaid.

After many attempts to convince the children that she really is a mermaid the dugong swims away with her tail splashing into the warm ocean.

Bel believes her but Benji is very practical and just can’t make the connection. But they all play together with the turtles, and the fishes.

At the end of the day as the sun is disappearing, and the illustrations become gradually softer, the dugong says goodbye to Bel and Benji.

“I have to go,” she said. “Mermaids never stay out after dark!”

The last page is a beautiful purple colour and Ben and Benji walk home in the sunset along the beach to the little wooden cabin.

“I love mermaids!” said Bel.  “Me too,” said Benji.

The first picture book from Candy Gourlay, whose acclaimed novels for young readers, Tall Story and Shine have been listed for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian’s Children’s Book Prize and both won the Crystal Prize for Europe.

Candy Gourlay is from the Philippines and grew up in Manila. As a child she often wondered why the books that she loved reading were all about pink skinned children and snow covered mountains, it was not like that in the Philippines. So she was determined to become an author and make some changes to the stereotypes.

At Books Go Walkabout, we work in many countries and these aims reflect our own, for books and stories to be meaningful to all children. There are always stories to be told wherever you are.

Francesca Chessa has illustrated over 40 books, including Elliot’s Arctic Surprise and Library Lily. She lives in Turin and holds art workshops for children and adults.

Otter-Barry Books in London, is an exciting children’s imprint making a difference and pushing boundaries of the standard book publishers.

We strongly recommend, Is it a Mermaid? The text and the beautiful illustrations will make it a favourite in schools, libraries nurseries and at home.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

50 Ways to Feel Happy

By

On March 22, 2018

In 7+ years, All Ages, Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Non Fiction, Quarto Kids

50 Ways to feel happy

Buy this book from BgW here…

This is the first book from Action for Happiness, written Vanessa King and illustrated by Celeste Aires. It is packed with wonderful ideas, to  feel happy and  to sustain happiness.

Action for Happiness is a global, social movement to promote happiness and well-being. The Dalai Lama is patron and his book The Art of Happiness is also a great read.

The book is divided into sections including; giving,relating, awareness, exercising,resilience, emotions and acceptance. Each page is well crafted with ideas and good illustrations showing just how the ideas will work. Becoming a kindness detective for example or ‘trying a mindful moment’ will  help your mind and body to relax and feel positive.

Well-being is something that we are all aware off now, and  is included in PSE school curricula. 50 Ways to Feel Happy is an excellent book for schools and can be used as a tool for engaging all children , especially where children are not as positive as others. It will really help.

Vanessa King is an author and expert in positive psychology and has worked extensively on enhancing well-being and resilience. In this book she was supported by Val Payne a teacher and education consultant and Peter Harper a consultant clinical psychologist. Vanessa gives an excellent  TED talk on The Ten Keys to Happier Living

Celeste Aires is an Argentinian born illustrator, her modern style uses geometric shapes and bright blocks of colours, which work really well in this book.

QuartoKids are the publishers and have a wealth of excellent non-fiction titles which are engaging and informative.

50 Ways to Feel Happy would be a great book for schools and for home, there are times for all of us when we need a little way into happiness.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

10 Reasons To Love A Whale and 10 Reasons To Love A Bear

By

On March 2, 2018

In 4 -5 Years, 6+ Years, All Ages, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Lincoln Children's Books, New titles

10 Reasons to love a whale cover image

Buy this book here…

The whale and the bear are the latest books to join the ’10 Reasons to Love’ series. Beautiful books, in hardback with an endearing whale or bear shaped hole in the cover, just waiting to be opened.

The combination of text and illustrations works really well, providing facts and interesting features, things that you will remember.

Did you know that whales are the original globetrotters? They travel from the polar regions to the equator and on their way, eat 40 million krill every day!

10 Reasons to Love a bear cover image

Buy this book here…

Bears wiggle and dance scratching their backs against a tree and pandas even do hand stands to leave the right mark!

The books deal with environmental issues and conservation and enable the reader to understand and love more about the animal. They are a perfect match for school work or just for reading at home.

Catherine Barr is the author, and has a long running interest in environmental campaigns, working with Greenpeace and as an editor at The Natural History Museum.

 

Hanako Clulow, the illustrator, left Japan for Ireland in 1997 and studied visual arts and English. her art work draws on her huge interest in nature and animal kingdoms.

Lincoln Children’s Books, in conjunction with the Natural History Museum, are the publishers. The first edition came out on March 1st 2018 and we are sure it will have a huge success.

Sue Martin

 

KidGlovz by Julie Hunt, illustrated by Dale Newman

By

On February 27, 2018

In 9 to 10 years, All Ages, Allen and Unwin, Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles

KidGlovz

Buy this title from Bookmonitor here…

This is a book with a difference, it’s a graphic novel in hardback, with an incredible number of drawings, vividly brought to life in black and white to tell this amazing story of Kid, his music his kidnap and all the characters who appear on the way.

Kid Glovz is a musical genius. His gift is so precious that he’s kept under lock and key. But when a young thief helps him escape, Kid must embark on a perilous journey through which he will discover the terrifying nature of his talent. A spellbinding graphic fable about friendship and freedom.

The story is full of mystery, an adventure with real danger and otherworldliness, a gripping tug-of-war between the forces of good and evil. It is a beautifully produced graphic novel for children, and on Julie’s website you can read the background to the story.

The author, award-winning Julie Hunt has written some amazing titles, including Little Else and a Song for Scarlet Runner. She lives on a farm in Southern Tasmania, she has a love of dramatic landscapes and has used these to build stories full of imagination and intrigue.

Dale Newman’s stunning artwork is reminiscent of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and has the same air of foreboding in many of the pictures. Kid Glovz is her first epic graphic novel and a stunning start to a career in children’s books. She lives in New South Wales, Australia and is also used to some amazing landscapes.

Allen and Unwin, Australian publishers have a star packed book list and KidGlovz is bound to be a great success. In Australia it has already won 2016 QLD Premier’s Literary Awards, Children’s Books and short-listed for  2016 CBCA Book of the Year, Crichton Award for New Illustrators

Books Go Walkabout recommend KidGlovz for children aged about 9+ and for adults too.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Peter Pan and Wendy by JM Barrie and illustrated by Robert Ingpen

By

On February 16, 2018

In 9 to 10 years, All Ages, Books go Walkabout, Children's Classics, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

Peter Pan and Wendy - Palazzo Editions - cover image

Get your copy here…

All children except one grow up! Maybe there are  a few more, for those who read this book will inevitably not want to grow up”

In a most beautiful new edition of Peter Pan and Wendy, from Palazzo, the story is enhanced with deeply imaginative illustrations from Robert Ingpen. 

Peter Pan flies into Wendy’s bedroom window in a house in London and with John and Michael, they fly away to Never Land.

Peter is the leader of the Lost Boys and meets his nemesis Captain Hook. From there along with Fairy Tinkerbell, the story and adventure begin.

J.M. Barrie left his royalties in perpetuity to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and this magnificent edition was published to commemorate the centenary of first publication and to continue as a fundraiser.

Robert Ingpen, is from Australia and first attempted illustrating Peter Pan at 7 years old. In 1986 he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his contribution to children’s literature and he has been honoured with membership of the Order of Australia.

A world-renowned artist and author, Ingpen has designed, illustrated and written more than one hundred books, including his highly acclaimed series of illustrated Children’s Classics, which have now been published in many editions around the world.

This book is part of a wonderful series of Classic Children’s Literature from Palazzo and will provide hours of pleasure.

Sue Martin

Books go Walkabout, stories across the world

 

Page 15 of 29

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén